Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION

Simon BolivarEl Libertador

Leader of war against Spain and for nationhood of Latin America

President Hugo Chavez

Chavez early career Military officer

Previous Pres. Carlos Andres Perez

Saw corruption within political system became dissatisfied

Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200

Felipe Antonio Acosta CarlezKilled during Caracazo

Jesus Urdaneta Hernandez Hugo Chavez

Took oath of Bolivar- "I swear before you, and I swear before the God of my fathers, that I will not allow my arm to relax, nor my soul to rest, until I have broken the chains that oppress us..."

Caracazo Massacre1989

Perez breaks campaign promises made and follows the advise of the U.S. and IMF

Starts as protests against rise in costs of Transportation. Starts outside Caracas and spreads. Military forces called in

3,000 people killed

Coup led by Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement 1992

Chavez leads coup which is unsuccessful. He accepts responsibility for his actions and then is seen as hero to the country.

Chavez elected president 1998 & Passes new constitution

New constitution increases rights of marginalized groups and altered structure of government

Kidnapping & attempted coupAfter the passage of several laws which sought to put more control over the State oil company PDVSA an attempt to remove Chavez from office was made

Partido Socialista Unido de VenezuelaUnited Socialist Party of Venezuela

BOLIVARIANISM

The Bolivarian Missions

Mission Robinson

Part of the role of these missions are to provide the basic necessary needs and skills to the people. Those being education, housing, health and food.

The Bolivarian Missions are a critical part of carrying out the government’sgoals of eradicating poverty and creating an equal society. Thousands offree health clinics have been built and there are now provisions of food and housing subsidies

Accomplishments

• A drop in infant mortality rate by 18.2% between 1998 and 2006

• Poverty fell from 59.4% in 1999 to 30.2 % in 2006

• Extreme poverty went down from 21.7% to 9.9% in the same period

• The missions are responsible for having made more than 1 million Venezuelan’s literate

Continuing Bolivar’s legacy & visionNewly formed organizations

• The Union of South American Nations-integrating two existing unions- Mercosul and the Andean Community of Nations

• The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas-creating relationships with the Caribbean based on economic aid and barter.

Future of Bolivarian Revolution

• Chavez- appears to be reform movement while he refers to the movement as revolution

• People of Venezuela are what will determine whether it is revolution or not

• Chavez is finding balance outside of Western Power Structure between capitalism and socialism

5 Critical Factors

• Mass Frustration- Caracazo- 1989 protests and riots began in response to steep increase in transportation costs

• Dissident Elite- restriction of public resources by Chavez severely stopped the flow of revenue to the elite

• Unifying Motivations- corruption of previous president created inflation in economy where people were unable to even get to work.

• Severe Political Crisis- previous President Perez was first Venezuelan president to be ousted from office for embezzling money from the government. He was imprisoned thereafter.

• Permissive world context-